Time Always Wins
by Arhtea
Summary: Written for QLFC Finals round 1. Delphini has decided to go back in time to save her father before he dies at the Battle of Hogwarts. But things, as usual, don't go quite as she had planned.


**Team:** Pride of Portree

 **Round:** Theory **of Relativity**

 **Position:** Keeper

 **Keeper's Prompt:** Fixed Timeline (no matter what you do in the past, the future will always remain the same)

 **Word count: 2765**

 **Beta love to: Story Please, Litfreak89, Crochetaway**

 **Follows canon with the exception that Lavender Brown lived and became a badass auror (a headcanon from Story Please that I am never letting go.) The method of time travel is AU as well. Takes place in the Cursed Child universe.  
**

 **As far as the prompt, I interpreted as such that everything big stays the same, but small details that have little effect, may be different.**

* * *

 **Time Always Wins**

The steady hum of machinery was enough to make it difficult for Favian Zabini to keep his eyes open. It was his second week as an intern in the Time Monitoring Department of the Ministry, and he was already bored out of his mind. There was very little to do at the department other than to make sure all the meters under the glass were at normal levels. Occasionally, some people would come through, and he'd have to set the time door for wherever and whenever they wanted to travel. Even then, his only job was to ensure that everyone got out safely and that nothing happened to the door while there were people visiting the past. Nothing ever did. People would come back, wipe the past dust from their clothes, and leave.

Favian was actually convinced that this was the most boring job in the Ministry. He hadn't even wanted it, but one of the requirements of passing his Government Institutions course at the Academy of Higher Magical Arts was a Ministry internship, and like a fool, he had forgotten to apply. When he finally remembered, all the best ones were snatched up, and he'd only gotten his position thanks to his father's friend.

Of course, at first, Favian had been plenty excited. He thought he was going to see time travel and all the excitement that went with it. Then his supervisor, an old and angular sort of man who looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, informed the boy that the door was strictly used for observing the past and that he should not expect any real danger to the timeline. After that, all glamour was gone from the position.

One of the meters ticked up and Favian glanced up from his book. He shook his head and gave the glass a harsh tap. The arrow jumped back into place and he turned back to the pages. After a second, he realized he had no idea what he'd been reading for the past few hours. Favian flipped back a few pages until he found a line that sounded familiar and tried again from there.

 _In accordance with the third law of transdimensional travel, fixed events in history cannot be altered unless the alteration yields results close to the original-_

"All right, everybody, hands where I can see them!"

The loud shout startled Favian, and he dropped his book. At the door stood a figure in a black robe who was holding a wand aimed at his throat. The stranger stepped into the light and Favian saw that it was a woman with silvery hair that had blue tips. She looked young, maybe twenty-something and not that scary, really.

"Is this the time door?" the woman demanded.

Favian nodded. "It…is," he replied slowly.

"Can you operate it?"

"I can." Favian frowned. It was pretty easy to operate the door; just a question of a few knobs and levers.

"I mean, do you have the clearance to use it?"

"…yes?" In as much as he had the Ministry-issued name tag that authorized him to be in the room and do whatever his supervisor demanded of him.

The stranger nodded and stepped closer. "You are going to send me through to the time I specify!"

Favian opened his mouth to point out that the woman could just go put a request through at the front desk. These days, even recreational travelers were sometimes allowed through, and if not, then it was usually very easy to sell it as an educational experience. However, the woman gave him no chance to speak. "And you will not do anything stupid, like alert your superiors or send Aurors after me!"

That made Favian hesitate and consider his options. The woman's words made no sense. However, she clearly had a wand. And Favian wasn't going to try any stupid heroics to protect something he never wanted to guard in the first place. After a brief inner battle, he sighed and gave in. "Alright, date and location?"

"Second of May 1998, Hogwarts!" the woman declared, and something in her voice indicated she expected the words to have some sort of an effect on Favian.

The boy just shrugged and turned the dials in front of him. The Battle of Hogwarts was one of the more popular destinations. After all, there was plenty to see there. He watched one of the meters. The arrow wobbled, and he gave it a light tap, watching it fall into place, then pulled a lever.

"Here you go!" he finally declared, wondering if he should include the usual safety briefing.

The woman turned to look at him. "Wait, you're just going to let me go there?"

Favian gave her a confused look, not sure what the woman wanted of him. "Well, there is a short safety briefing," he began, "The usual. Don't try to change something important, don't do anything stupid, and don't get killed. You die in there, you're going to arrive back here as a corpse." That hadn't actually happened before, thank Merlin, but Favian had seen a wizard come back lacking one arm after he went back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

"That's it?"

Favian bit his lip. The woman seemed to be expecting something from him but he was unclear on what that was. "…yes, I think that's all? Now, as soon as I pull the lever, you may step through. Just remember where the time door is located on the other side, or you won't be able to get back."

The woman stared at him, then shrugged and stepped through the door. The light above it turned a dull red, and Favian picked up his book again.

* * *

Delphini still couldn't believe her luck as she stepped through the door and realized she was actually back at the time of the Battle of Hogwarts. She had really thought it would be harder. That there would be more Aurors guarding such an important article as a time-travel door. In fact, to find only one young boy guarding it, who didn't even put up the appearance of a fight, was rather shocking.

After a few seconds, she tossed the thought aside. Maybe that was just what a generation that had seen no war was like. Maybe she'd finally gotten lucky. She wasn't going to question it too much; she had a mission to complete. By the looks of it, the portal had opened right next to a classroom inside the castle. She had to get down quickly.

Delphini slipped on the invisibility cloak and began making her way towards her main goal. Luckily, the battle had briefly ceased, and she saw her father parade Harry Potter's body in front of everyone. She felt almost sad to see that. This was the moment her father truly believed he had won, only to have the stupid Potter boy come back to life and kill him. But she was there to ensure that would not happen.

Making her way through the crowd was easy. They were all focused on the sight in front of them. Delphini just had to wait for the moment that all their eyes were on Neville and Nagini. Then she darted forward, making sure the invisibility cloak was hiding her and quickly crouched next to the body. His wand had fallen and was next to his body. The boy likely had not dared to pick it up. She reached out and very quickly did the substitution. Then she darted back into the crowd.

It was an extremely simple solution. All she had to do was switch the boy's wand for a regular stick of wood and, master of the Elder Wand or not, he'd be helpless. Delphini smiled. She wished she could stay but she wasn't sure she should. Too much interference might cause a snowball effect and change the future for the worse. Or during the fighting, she might get cut off from the portal and not be able to get back to her own time. She was sure she had done what she had to and quickly rushed back upstairs.

* * *

Favian looked up from the book as the time door opened. "Had a nice trip, did you?" he asked the witch stepping back through.

The woman gave him a startled look as if she had not expected him to be there when she arrived back. She gathered herself quickly enough. "Who won the Battle of Hogwarts?"

Favian arched an eyebrow, wondering why she was asking about history. Had she been living under a rock for the past few years?

"Well, Lord Voldemort briefly gained the upper hand when it turned out someone had stolen Harry Potter's wand," Favian began.

The woman's face lit up with glee.

"However, as he was about to cast the killing spell, he slipped on a banana peel someone had left on the ground and accidentally skewered himself on the stick of wood Potter was holding."

The woman opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish out of water as disbelief spread through her. " _What_?" she managed to force out.

Favian shrugged. It wasn't the way everyone had thought the battle would go. But it had happened; the Light had won, and that was all that mattered in the end.

"I need to go back!" the woman shrieked. "Make it happen!"

Favian stared at her. She didn't strike him as a connoisseur of history but people weren't always what they seemed. Then the woman drew her wand and held it to his throat. "Do it!"

That settled it. He had a date in the evening; he couldn't get himself cursed. Favian turned the knobs again.

* * *

Delphini was confused but not deterred. This was probably just a freak accident. A bump in the road. It was fixable. She had already changed the wand. That didn't need changing. This time, however, she stayed to watch the final duel and when her eyes spotted the banana peel, summoned it out of the way.

It began to go well. They made speeches and drew their wands. Harry Potter exclaimed: "Expelliarmus!" to no apparent effect.

Lord Voldemort replied with: "Avada Kedavra!"

But just as he cast the spell, he stumbled and the spell went flying high above his head. Delphini followed it with her eyes, a horror growing in her stomach. In front of her eyes, the spell struck a statue that, for no apparent reason, was floating right above Voldemort. The spell holding the statue up came undone and it dropped down. There was a sickening crunch and then…Voldemort was no longer.

* * *

"I need you to send me back again!" the woman stated, panting. "This is going to work the third time!"

Favian turned and put his book down. He was getting tired of this woman and struggled to understand what she was trying to accomplish. "I hate to be rude. Especially as you are aiming a wand at me, but haven't you had enough? What more is there to see of the Battle of Hogwarts?"

"To see?" the woman shrieked. "I am not going back to _see_ it. I am going to save my father's life!"

Favian blinked as the words sunk in. Then he felt a sudden pang of sympathy. This woman had lost someone in the war and now she was desperate to save them. But she simply didn't know the laws.

"I…I am sorry to be the one to tell you, but, miss, you can't."

"What do you mean I can't?" the woman demanded. "You can bloody well send me back, or I'll make you regret ever being born!"

Favian shook his head. "I sympathize, I really do. But it is not up to me. I'm saying what you're trying is impossible. You can't change the past!"

"Yes, I can, you moron. I did. I changed the way he died!"

Favian sighed. "You might have done that. But nothing really changed except that, did it? He is still dead. Because time does not _want_ to be changed. It likes to stay the way it is. So you try to change something, and time will react. It will minimize the effect of your change and make the big and important things still happen."

The woman shook her head, disbelief evident on her face. "No…No…time is not sentient. That's not how it works!"

"Yes, it is. That's how it has been for at least as long as this department has been open. Why do you think they hold tourist trips to the past? Because no one can muck it up!" Favian replied, thinking back to everything his supervisor had explained. "It's like…" he tried to recall the story, "Once Harry Potter himself went through this door to try to save his godfather. He claimed he pushed the man out of the way of the killing curse only to come back and find out that seconds later Sirius Black had been crushed by a shelf of falling prophecies. If he lived, it would have altered countless lives beyond imagination! The universe can't handle such a change."

The woman shook her head again. "No! No, you're just trying to stop me from saving him! You want my father to stay dead! Send me back!"

"Look, miss, I can't imagine how you feel. We all lost people we knew, but—"

"Shut up! You just don't want me to save Lord Voldemort!" the woman shrieked, apparently having reached her breaking point.

Immediately, Favian's sympathy disappeared. His hand reached out for the emergency button to summon the Aurors. His father had never had anything but disdain for Death Eaters or Lord Voldemort, and he had no love for them either.

"Get away from that!" the woman demanded. "Get away and send me back!"

Favian opened his mouth to argue how useless it would be but then thought better of it. This was perfect. It would give the Aurors enough time to set up a trap as she returned and she really couldn't change anything. That was the one thing his supervisor had been very clear on. In silence, he set everything ready again.

* * *

Delphini had it all thought out now. She would cast a shield around her father and then kill the Potter boy herself. It would still look as if her father did it. She raised her wand and readied herself as the final duel began. She didn't notice the bludger that had gotten loose from the Quidditch set. It hit her straight in the face with such force that she was dead before she hit the floor.

* * *

The door buzzed but didn't open. For a moment, the Aurors surrounding it hesitated. Then Lavender Brown gave the order for Favian to open it from the control panel. He obeyed and the body fell out on the carpeted floor.

Auror Brown stepped closer and pulled the woman's wand from her hand. Then she felt for a pulse and shook her head. "Cause of death seems to be blunt force trauma."

"I did tell her not to die," Favian stated, his voice quivering with shock. He hadn't thought this would happen. He thought she'd just fail again.

The stern woman nodded. "What does the record book say for deaths at the Battle of Hogwarts?"

One of the Aurors opened a huge leather book in the corner and scanned it. "Unknown female hit in the face with a stray bludger, ma'am."

"Why would there be a stray bludger flying around?" Favian asked hesitantly.

Auror Brown shook her head. "Because time didn't want to change, and she was hell-bent on changing it, would be my guess. Accidents happen to folks who mess with the timeline."

"But then, why send back a version of her? I get why one had to stay in the past. There were probably people who saw her die and would have questioned a disappearing body more than an unidentified one. But why give out another corpse?" Favian asked further, trying to reconcile the fact that what he was told meant there were two identical bodies in two different places in the timeline.

The look on the woman's face was grim. "I'd consider that a warning. Time always wins and we should not forget that." She stood up. "Put a sheet over her and take her to the morgue. The Unspeakables might want her, but for us, she is just another dead Voldemort follower! And for Merlin's sake, someone get better security for this place before more people get themselves dead!"


End file.
